Antiviral drug becomes promising cancer-fighter

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Antiviral drug becomes promising cancer-fighter

Updated Tue. May. 19 2009 10:02 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A commonly used antiviral drug that's already used to fight hepatitis C and HIV

could also be used to treat 30 per cent of cancer types, according to a new

study conducted on patients in Canada.

Doctors in Montreal tested the antiviral drug ribavirin on 11 patients with

acute myeloid leukemia (AML), who had undergone several other treatments that

had previously failed.

Nine of the patients saw their conditions improve within a matter of months,

with one achieving complete remission and two achieving partial remission, all

with few side effects. The results are published online in the journal, Blood.

Klamph was one of the patients who benefitted from the treatment. Last

fall, he was weak and ill with AML. After taking part in the study to test the

experimental treatment, he achieved complete remission and was even able to

leave hospital and scuba dive in Florida.

" Within two short months, it was like a miracle, " he told CTV News. " I feel like

the cancer is gone. "

The researchers, led by Dr. Borden, at the Institute for Research in

Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, say that ribavirin

works by suppressing activity of the eIF4E gene, which becomes overactive in 30

per cent of cancer types and overproduces a protein that helps turn cells

cancerous.

" In several of the patients, we had remissions -- which is completely unheard of

for these kinds of patients. And in another subgroup of patients, we had really

dramatic drops in the number of leukemia cells they had, including patients

where we could no longer or barely detect any leukemia in them anymore, " Borden

explained.

" To have patients who feel good and can go out and have a life, and not be in

hospital sick all the time, which is often the normal course of leukemia, that

was really exciting for us and that's why we're excited. "

Dr. Leber, one of the other IRIC investigators involved in the study, says

what makes the results so exciting for him is that ribavirin is an already

established drug.

" This has been obtained with a drug that has been available for probably a

decade, " he said. " So unlike a lot of extremely promising cancer therapies that

are in earlier stages of development, this is a drug that we could use

immediately.

Leber was also pleasantly surprised by how quickly the treatments seemed to have

an effect on patients.

" This type of response rate in a wide variety of patients, who have pretty

advanced leukemia, would be considered pretty remarkable for any drug, " he said.

" Certainly, considering how well it was tolerated and the fact that it's a very

convenient oral therapy that can be taken at home, when you put all this into

the mix I think it is quite exciting results. "

Dr. Borden says ribavirin is likely to show promise for other types of cancer

associated with dysregulation of the eIF4E gene.

She says the next challenge is to combine the promising antiviral with

chemotherapy, to improve its effectiveness.

She says they also need to work on ways to combat the development of resistance

to the drug.